Choosing Soteri for Content Scanning vs. Atlassian Guard Premium
If you're looking to scan your Jira and Confluence instances for PII, secrets and other sensitive information, you have options. We compare Soteri's Security apps with Content Scanning included in Atlassian Guard Premium, with a focus on the needs of Enterprise Security Teams.
The TL;DR Version
Best for Enterprises that need deep, flexible, secret scanning across Confluence and Jira.
• 40+ built-in detectors & unlimited custom rules
• Scans both new changes and historical records – catching past leaks Guard misses
• Available for both Data Center & Cloud
• < $1 per user / month at scale - deploy by product (buy only what you need)
Best for teams who only need baseline content scanning baked into Atlassian Cloud.
• ~10 built-in content scanning rules
• Only scans records as they’re edited (no historical records, attachments or comments).
• Available for Cloud only
• Flat $8 per user / month
Overview
Atlassian Guard Premium is Atlassian’s own advanced cloud security add-on (generally available since late 2024). It is Atlassian’s built-in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and threat detection solution for Atlassian Cloud products, offered as an upgrade on top of Guard Standard. Guard Premium provides features like data classification tagging, anomaly detection, as well as content scanning, which will be the feature of focus for this article. Content scanning provides basic detection rules, and alerts teams when sensitive data is added to Confluence pages or Jira issues. While convenient, its scanning capabilities are somewhat narrow in focus (covering only certain content types) and it inherits Atlassian’s flat pricing model and cloud-only deployment approach.
Soteri is a cybersecurity company specializing in secret detection within developer and collaboration tools. They provide best-selling Atlassian Marketplace apps – Security for Confluence, Security for Jira, and Security for Bitbucket – that seamlessly integrate to scan for API keys, passwords, tokens, and other secrets across your Jira issues, Confluence knowledge base, and code repositories. Soteri’s tools are trusted by large enterprises (Verizon, Bank of America, FICO, Northrop Grumman, etc.) and emphasize data privacy (scanning is done locally in your instance, with no data sent externally). The apps are plug-and-play on both Atlassian Cloud and Data Center, allowing even highly regulated organizations to find and remove sensitive data in their Atlassian tools without compromising on security or compliance.
Soteri vs. Atlassian Guard Premium
In-Depth Comparison
Let's dive into our in-depth " Soteri vs. Atlassian Guard Premium" comparison and find the best content scanner solution for you.
Pricing
Here's a calculator for the direct costs (as opposed to indirect, such as setup and maintenance) of Soteri's Security for Confluence and Security for Jira, and Atlassian Guard Premium, assuming an annual contract.
Note: We assume a 15% discount on Atlassian Guard Premium's monthly cost ($8/user/month). The final discount may vary based on negotiations with Atlassian and Solution Partners.
Let's break down each of the products' pricing in more depth.
Soteri
Soteri’s Atlassian apps are licensed via the Atlassian Marketplace on a tiered user-band model. You purchase a license for each product scanner (Jira, Confluence, and/or Bitbucket) based on the user count of that product.
For content scanning coverage across Jira and Confluence, teams need to purchase both Security for Confluence and Security for Jira, though even after purchasing both apps the price is significantly lower than Atlassian Guard Premium.
For the latest Soteri pricing, view our plugins (Jira, Confluence) on the Atlassian Marketplace.
Atlassian Guard Premium
Guard Premium is a fixed-price add-on for all users in your Atlassian organization. It costs $8 per user per month (approximately $96 per user/year) at list price.
This is charged on top of your Atlassian product subscriptions. There may be slight discounts for very large user counts if arranged through Atlassian sales or Solution Partners, but in general it’s linear scaling.
Since Guard Premium is only sold as an organization-wide security package, you can’t opt to buy it just for a single application (Jira or Confluence) – it’s a org-wide investment.
For a 3,000-user company, Guard Premium would cost on the order of $240k–$288k per year, which is an order of magnitude higher than Soteri’s cost for similar user counts.
Compatibility and Setup
Let's look at what it takes to get set up with Soteri and Atlassian Guard Premium on Confluence and Jira.
Soteri
- Marketplace-native installation. Install in just minutes via Atlassian Marketplace—no complicated setup required.
- Flexible deployment. Deploy individually for Jira, Confluence, or even Bitbucket. No requirement to enable across your entire instance at once.
- Minimal configuration. Pre-configured detection rules allow immediate use out-of-the-box; add unlimited custom rules as needed.
- Run full historical scans: Once installed, most enterprises want to scan their entire Jira and Confluence instance to find any pre-existing sensitive data. Admins can trigger a full scan from the native Soteri dashboard (Jira, Confluence).
- Data Center-ready. Available for both Cloud and Data Center installations, making it ideal for enterprises that are planning Cloud migration in the future.
Atlassian Guard Premium
- Org-level toggle. Activated via your Atlassian Cloud org settings; once enabled, Guard will scan all new pages/issues across your Atlassian user base.
- One-size-fits-all. No selective deployment—Guard applies across all Jira and Confluence users within your organization.
- Built-in integration. Easy funneling of alerts to Slack, Teams, email, Jira tickets, or your SIEM directly from the Atlassian admin console.
- No historical scans. Only content edited or created after Guard Premium activation is scanned; existing historical content remains unchecked until manually updated. This can make initial setup a little more difficult, as enterprises with a large backlog of historical content will not be protected until scans are triggered for these pages.
Enterprise Support
When sensitive data leaks occur, responsive and reliable support can mean the difference between swift remediation and prolonged risk exposure. Here’s how Soteri and Atlassian Guard Premium compare on enterprise-grade support and readiness.
Soteri
Soteri Works With Top Enterprise Companies
Trusted by the Fortune 500 because we don't phone home like other competing brands.
SLA – Soteri has four levels in their service level agreement. Level one offers same-day responses for issues reported within business hours and level four has a five-day response time.
Here's the full breakdown:
Legal - Soteri makes all legal policies such as privacy policy, SLA, and end user license agreement (EULA) available on this legal page.
Security and Compliance – Soteri outlines its adherence to multiple standards detailed in the Trust Center, including CCPA, GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001 (data center providers), as well as a completed SOC 2, Type II certification.
Support – Soteri offers 24-hour/day engineer-backed support. You can get in touch by phone number, email, or by submitting a form/ticket.
Atlassian Guard Premium
Atlassian Premier Support is the primary channel—generally reliable but less specialized in secret scanning and security incidents.
Next-business-day SLA standard for Guard Premium issues; critical security incidents often require immediate internal response plans.
Limited specialized security focus: Support handles multiple Atlassian products and features, potentially impacting specialized security support depth.
Compliance backed by Atlassian: Benefits from Atlassian’s overall SOC 2 certification and cloud compliance program but lacks specialized transparency for Guard Premium itself.
Features
Soteri
- 40+ built-in secret detectors (API keys, tokens, passwords, credit cards, SSH keys, JWTs, and more.)
- Unlimited custom scanning rules
- Scans Jira issues, comments, attachments, and full history
- Scans Confluence pages, comments, attachments, blog posts, and full page history
- Downloadable CSV export of scan findings
- Mark findings as reviewed within the Security Analysis dashboard (Confluence, Jira)
- Native dashboard to review exposed secrets, hide false positives, add custom scanning rules, and configure the tool
- Local, fully-contained scanning
Atlassian Guard Premium
- ~10 built-in secret detectors (Passwords, AWS keys, API tokens, SSNs, credit card numbers, IBANs, and more.)
- Custom scanning rules via Atlassian UI
- Scans Jira issue summary and descriptions (only upon creation/edit)
- Scans Confluence page/blog body & titles (only upon creation/edit)
- One-click redaction for secrets detected in Confluence pages (limited to page content.)
- Built-in Atlassian Automation integration (alerts to Slack, Teams, Jira tickets, SIEM)
Final Thoughts On Using Secret Scanning Tools
Secret leaks remain a constant threat to enterprises, with serious implications for data privacy, compliance, and brand reputation. Choosing the right secret-scanning solution within your Atlassian ecosystem depends on the depth of protection your organization demands.
Soteri provides enterprises with a robust, specialized solution designed explicitly for comprehensive secret detection. Its deep coverage (including comments, attachments, and historical content), broad rule-set, powerful customization, and full integration (Cloud or Data Center) make it a popular choice for many of the Fortune 500. Crucially, Soteri keeps all data fully within your control, safeguarding sensitive information and aligning perfectly with strict regulatory requirements. Combined with low pricing even at high user counts, it's the optimal choice for teams who demand complete, flexible, and secure secret scanning.
Atlassian Guard Premium, on the other hand, serves as a convenient baseline solution integrated directly within Atlassian Cloud. Its straightforward activation and built-in workflows are attractive for teams needing basic coverage and ease-of-use, and are primarily looking to leverage Guard features outside ofcontent scanning. However, its significant gaps in detection coverage (no attachments, comments, or historical scanning), cloud-only constraints, and substantially higher cost mean it may fall short for large enterprises with more robust secret-scanning needs.
If your organization requires comprehensive protection and full control over sensitive data, Soteri is clearly the superior choice.
Experience the benefits of Security for Confluence and Security for Jira by Soteri for free today.
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Disclaimers
We are not affiliated with Atlassian. The use of their logo is solely for the purpose of comparison and does not imply any partnership or endorsement. Any mention of these third-party products is for informational purposes only.
The content on this site may be subject to change, and we cannot guarantee its real-time accuracy. We strive to provide up-to-date information, but there is a possibility that it may be out of date, especially if a competitor has updated their product after our publication. We recommend verifying details independently for the most current insights and contacting us if you see outdated information.